The present invention relates to folding and sealable greeting cards that can be mailed. The preferred embodiments of the invention relate to such foldable greeting cards made from a plurality of panels having illustrations and/or corresponding descriptions for conveying a story or other message as the card is unfolded.
Prior art greeting cards of the type generally contemplated by the present invention have been marketed under the trademark and trade name MORE THAN A CARD, by the New Orleans, La. company, More Than A Card, Inc. Those greeting cards have included panels which include pictorial representations of scenes from a nursery rhyme fairy tale or other story, collection of art or pictorial scenes with any accompanying words depicted on other foldable panels, with the panels configured so that the card can be unfolded to sequentially expose different pictorial representations and descriptive wording or accompanying art on respective adjacent side-by-side panels. These prior art cards include one panel, which is on the outside in the folded up condition, which has spaces for the sender's address, the recipient's address, and postage, so that the same can be sent as a simple compact folded greeting card.
With the prior MORE THAN A CARD greeting card, it was contemplated that some type of tape or other sealing device would seal the folded up card together at one edge to accommodate mailing by the postal services. However, these prior MORE THAN A CARD greetings cards required a sealing device separate and apart from the greeting card itself for accommodating the sealing of the folded card, this necessitating that the purchaser obtain also the card sealing device and have them readily available whenever one of the greeting cards was to be sealed and sent by mail.
Prior U.S. patents also disclose foldable greeting cards and other mailing devices which are designed to be folded up and sealed with a message enclosed in the sealed package. Examples of such patents include U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,725,007 to Kovnet; 1,794,223 to Zabek; 1,958,755 to Ihling; 2,270,455 to Lichter; 2,279,164 to Gettleman; 2,723,078 to Tilly; 3,266,714 to Heuberger; and 3,399,825. The devices disclosed in these patents include various means for accommodating sealing of the folded together package for mailing purposes, including adhesively coated portions of the foldable card or envelope itself, which adhesively coated portions are designed to be folded over and sealed against the card. Such construction require a waste of card material and special manufacture techniques for the adhesive sealing tabs, increasing the cost to manufacture the cards. Other arrangements have suggested some type of sealing stamp that could be placed over the edges of the folded card for sealing and mailing. However, these last mentioned arrangements provided for sealing stamps which could only be removed by the recipient of the sealed mailing piece with tearing or other damage to the surfaces of the card contacted by the seal, thus destroying the asthetic value of the mailing piece at a minimum, and possibly even destroying the message intended to be conveyed by the mailing piece.
An object of the present invention is to provide an improved foldable, mailable greeting card which does not exhibit the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art arrangements. According to the invention, this object is achieved by providing an arrangement including a foldable greeting card with a plurality of panels foldable together into a compact package and a permanent-removable adhesive sealing piece which is adhesively adhered to the greeting at a storage position spaced from the location where it is ultimately placed for sealing the folded card for mailing purposes. The adhesive sticker has a double backing called "permanent-removable" whereby the underlying layer is a permanent film which is left on the card at the storage space when the removable surface and sticker are peeled off and placed at the sealing edge for sending. The sealing piece does not harm the greeting card surface in any way by tearing or delaminating the same.
Thus, with the arrangement of the present invention, the greeting card can be marketed without any envelope in a non-sealed condition so that customers can view all of the panels of the card before purchase and can also write messages on the inside panels of the card, and then can subsequently seal the card in such a manner that the recipient can unseal the card without destroying the purpose of the card. Thus, the advantages are obtained that the sealing piece is packaged together with the card and can be applied in a very simple manner by the sender of the card and can be removed by the recipient of the card in a simple manner without degrading the quality of the card surface. These features of the sealing piece are particularly advantageous in the case of preferred embodiments of the greeting card where the design on outer panels of the greeting card when in a sealed ready to mail position extend up to the border edges which are covered by the sealing piece. For example, in the above-mentioned MORE THAN A CARD type greeting cards with panels having pictorial representations of scenes from a fairy tale or nursery rhyme, the outer panel which is first viewed by the customer when purchasing the card and by the recipient when receiving the card can be designed so as to use full surface format of that outer panel because the detachable non-destructive adhesive sealing piece can be stored in the card for commercial display purposes without obstructing the cover panel, and can then be applied and removed subsequently by the recipient, without defacing the cover panel.
According to certain preferred embodiments of the present invention the foldable greeting card is configured as a story telling mailing piece which comprises a series of panels connected by fold lines which forms a collapsible package having front and back sides by folding the series of panels along the fold lines. Illustrations and corresponding descriptions are provided on faces of the series of panels and coordinated such that an illustration and corresponding description are always positioned adjacent one another as the series of panels is folded and unfolded at the fold lines. The removable sealing device is an adhesive sticker which is adhesively connectible to a face of the series of panels for sealing and unsealing the front and back sides of the package together without damage to the mailing piece.
Particularly advantageous features of preferred embodiments of the present invention include an inside face of an inside end panel being provided with a space for a written message. Additionally, one of the front and back sides of the folded package is provided with a space for placing an address, postage stamp and return address. Further, one of the front and back sides of the envelope is provided with a title page describing the story to be told. Moreover, the mailing piece can be constructed so that the story told is a game such as, for example, a child's game. Also, the mailing piece may be constructed as a collection of stories or a collection of pictures or art.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.